Saturday, March 23, 2024

Redacted RCMP report warns of civil unrest

A secret RCMP report is warning the federal government that Canada may descend into civil unrest once citizens realize the bleakness of their economic situation.

Secret RCMP report warns Canadians may revolt once they realize how broke they are | National Post | Tristin Hopper:

March 20, 2024 - "A secret RCMP report is warning the federal government that Canada may descend into civil unrest once citizens realize the hopelessness of their economic situation. 'The coming period of recession will … accelerate the decline in living standards that the younger generations have already witnessed compared to earlier generations,' reads the report, entitled Whole-of-Government Five-Year Trends for Canada. 'For example, many Canadians under 35 are unlikely ever to be able to buy a place to live,' it adds.

"The report, labelled secret, is intended as a piece of 'special operational information' to be distributed only within the RCMP and among 'decision-makers' in the federal government. A heavily redacted version was made public as a result of an access to information request filed by Matt Malone, an assistant professor of law at British Columbia’s Thompson Rivers University, and an expert in government secrecy....

"[T]he report authors warn that whatever Canada’s current situation, it 'will probably deteriorate further in the next five years.' In addition to worsening living standards, the RCMP also warns of a future increasingly defined by unpredictable weather and seasonal catastrophes, such as wildfires and flooding. Most notably, report authors warn of Canada facing 'increasing pressure to cede Arctic territory.'

"Another major theme of the report is that Canadians are set to become increasingly disillusioned with their government.... 'Law enforcement should expect continuing social and political polarization fueled by misinformation campaigns and an increasing mistrust for all democratic institutions,' reads one of the report’s 'overarching considerations.'

"Ironically, among the report’s more heavily redacted sections is one carrying the subtitle 'erosion of trust.' 'The past seven years have seen marked social and political polarization in the Western world' reads a partial first sentence, with the entire rest of the section deleted by government censors.

"The censor’s pen also deleted most of a section warning about 'paranoid populism.' 'Capitalizing on the rise of political polarization and conspiracy theories have been populists willing to tailor their messages to appeal to extremist movements,' reads the section’s one non-redacted sentence.

"In terms of declining living standards and inaccessible home ownership, the RCMP’s warnings are indeed in line with available statistics. Canadian productivity — measured in terms of GDP per capita — has been trending downwards since at least the 1980s. But this has accelerated dramatically in recent years.... Meanwhile, housing affordability has reached 'worst-ever' levels in most of Canada’s major markets, according to a December analysis by RBC. On average, even condos are now so unaffordable that only 44.5 per cent of Canadian households had sufficient income to buy one at current prices. As for single-family homes, only the richest 25 per cent of Canadian households had any hope of obtaining one.

"'Economic forecasts for the next five years and beyond are bleak,' reads the RCMP’s assessment of the rest of the decade."

Read more: https://nationalpost.com/opinion/secret-rcmp-report-warns-canadians-may-revolt-once-they-realize-how-broke-they-are

Read redacted report: https://s3.documentcloud.org/documents/24467543/rcmp-5-year-trends-report.pdf

RCMP Warn of an ANGRIER Canada in New Report | The Elev8 Podcast | March 20, 2024: 

1 comment:

  1. Angry people tend to be more motivated to "raise a little hell".

    ReplyDelete